Vegan Soda Bread

Category: Lifestyle

March 11,2022

Ingredients

3 cups All-purpose Flour or spelt
3/4 cup Wholemeal Flour or whole spelt or more all-purpose white flour or oat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt optional, can be made salt free

Vegan buttermilk

2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar or lemon juice or any vinegar
1 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons Soy Milk or oat milk or almond milk

To knead the bread

4–6 tablespoons All-purpose Flour

Instructions

Preheat oven to 220°C (430°F). Line a baking tray with a lightly greased piece of parchment paper. Set aside.
In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk soy milk with apple cider vinegar. Set aside for 10 minutes until it thickens to a buttermilk-like consistency.
In another large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, and salt.
Make a well in the center and pour the vegan buttermilk.
Stir the dough with a spatula at first. Then, when it becomes difficult to work the dough with the spatula, use your hands to knead the dough, adding more flour if needed to form a ball.
Knead the dough for 1 or 2 minutes maximum until you are able to make a ball. If the dough is very sticky, simply add white flour (up to a maximum of 1/3 cup) but be careful! You don’t want dry dough, or the Irish bread will be very dense and dry. A stickier dough results in moist, elastic bread, and that’s what you want.
Transfer the dough ball onto the prepared baking tray and flatten the dough into a thin disc of a maximum of 3 cm (1.5 inches) in height. This is extremely important, or the bread won’t rise at all.
Cut a deep cross (1 cm deep, 0.4 inches) on top of the bread and sprinkle/pat some extra white flour on top of the bread.
Bake at 220°C (430°F), middle rack, for 20-30 minutes or until the outside is crusty.
Transfer to a cooling rack for 1 hour before slicing.
Store the bread at room temperature for up to 3-4 days, wrapped into a clean towel to keep its moisture.
Can be eaten plain or toasted with jam or mashed avocado. Or it can be served as a quick side to soup and salads.

Notes

Plant-based milk: This recipe reaches the best bread texture using regular soy milk rather than low fat or any other plant-based milk.

White whole-wheat flour: you must use fine white whole-wheat flour, not coarse whole-wheat flour. Coarse whole-wheat won’t absorb the liquid enough, and the bread dough will be very sticky, and you will have to add a lot more white flour to achieve the same result.

Seeds and nuts: you can add up to 1/2 cup of seeds or chopped nuts in the bread dough like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, linseeds, sesame seeds, chopped walnuts, pistachios, or almonds.

Sweetbread: you can also add up to 1/3 cup of dried fruits like apricots, cranberries, raisins, or dates to this bread.

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